Direct Storage - which drive to keep unlocked?

[OpenSource Ghost]

Using BitLocker prevents use of Direct Storage, compatibility with which can be verified via CMD commands.

Which drive should be unlocked for Direct Storage to work, the OS one or the one with games on it or both? I know almost nothing uses Direct Storage for now, but that may change later.

 

[LukeTbk]

compatibility with which can be verified via CMD commands.

If you still have the xbox bar on your system, can you look via this way:

https://www.ghacks.net/2023/04/21/how-to-find-out-if-your-windows-pc-supports-directstorage/

It would tell you which gpu and harddrive support it.

Direct storage need to be available on the harddrive on which the game that use it is installed on for sure, bing gpt that the os also need to be on an nvme but I am not sure how much a trust it (it also tell me that bitlocker and direcstorage work at different drive level, data vs application and should not go into conflict with each other), some part of directstorage still work on ssd/hdd after all I think.

You can use actual up to date directstorage demos to make sure in doubt:
https://github.com/microsoft/DirectStorage

 

[OpenSource Ghost]

This is the CMD command that verifies whether a particular drive/partiton is compatible with DirectStorage is "fsutil bypassIo state x:\", where "x" is the drive/partition letter.

Here's what is for sure:
- Drives/partitions that pass DirectStorage test only pass when BitLocker is disabled and the same drives/partitions fail DirectStorage test when BitLocker is enabled
- Native Microsoft AHCI and NVMe drivers (without BitLocker) are supported and pass the test
- Intel VMD drivers (without BitLocker) are supported and pass the test
- Samsung "secnvme" drivers from year 2020 are not supported and do not pass the test

AFAIK, BitLocker is very close to metal and relies on kernel drivers. It also acts as "lower filter" (same as ReadyBoost). Either way, BitLocker drives fail DirectStorage test.

 

[LukeTbk]

According to gpt, Bitlocker group policy setting could be the issue what driver (it will the first maybe not all of them) the bypassIo command tell you stop bypassio to work ?

If you are ok with no bitlocker on the game drive, that something you could try (with actual example above as well) to see if it work, without any need to fix the issue.

 

[OpenSource Ghost]

"fsutil bypassIo state x:\" with BitLocker enabled:
Volume stack bypass is disabled (fvevol.sys)
Storage Type: NVMe
Storage Driver: BypassIo compatible

"fsutil bypassIo state x:\" with BitLocker disabled:
Volume stack bypass is enabled
Storage Type: NVMe
Storage Driver: BypassIo compatible

Do demos tell whether DirectStorage is active? I hope it doesn't require OS partiton to be decrypted even if there aren't any games on it.

 

[LukeTbk]

Do demos tell whether DirectStorage is active? I hope it doesn't require OS partiton to be decrypted even if there aren't any games on it.

It give a feedback of the sorts:
Waiting for the DirectStorage request to complete...
The DirectStorage request completed successfully!

2 of them also tried the GPU decompression step as well. There is pre-compiled version online if it is an issue, I imagine I could send you the latest compiled version if you want